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GET UP YOU SON OF A BITCH!

We still control our own destiny. That’s a fact. From here out if we run the table vs our division, and finish even 9 – 7, we can make a comeback, and still win the East. This game is part of that comeback. This game, is that first step.

This game isn’t about what our opponent does. It’s about what we do. This season has been all about what we have, and what we haven’t done. We need our team to spend less time calling folks out, and spend more time making big plays.

We need G Isaac Seumalo to lock-out his assignments. We need LB Nigel Braham to make de-cleating tackles in the flat. We need RB Josh Adams to run angry. We need CB Sidney Jones to take the ball away. We need coaches like Jim Schwartz to show a new wrinkle here and there. Those are all internal things. Look in the mirror things.

Last time we faced the giants, their rookie RB piled up something like 1,000,005 yards. And they still got blown out, didn’t they? Damned straight they did. Because it wasn’t about them. It was about US doing the things that winners do. The Eagles need to focus on the Eagles jobs. Not fans, nor the locker room, just the job. Doing that will get us the sweep, and bring us one step closer to our division crown.

So let’s talk about the Four Things we need to focus on this week versus the giants:

1) Feed the pig! Feed the pig!: RB Josh Adams is a more physical runner than we had the last time we faced this team. We need to establish to the NFL that we can pound the body again, and the giants are the perfect bitch to put on the poster for what we can do again. Feed that young’un the pig. Let’s get at least 18 handoffs into his belly, like we did with Wendell Smallwood in Week 6.

2) Box that boy: Don’t let WR Odell Beckham have the sideline. Don’t double him outright, but keep him bracketed where the FS can reach him with a hit. Beckham will see a fair amount of targets, even if he’s well covered. Forcing QB Eli Manning to throw the ball into a tighter window, could result in one (or more) of those delicious turnovers he likes to feed defenses. (This worked so well last time, I didn’t want to jinx it by changing a single space, syllable, or comma. So I just copy and pasted this onto the end.)

3) Charge the ‘A’ gaps: With DT Timmy Jernigan back, we now have a level of “up the gut” pass rush, that we’ve lacked since Week 8 last year. (After MLB Jordan Hicks got hurt, the Eagles DT’s were asked to do different things to compensate.) How big was that? Here is DT Fletcher Cox’s 2017 season. Notice the fall-off after Week 8? Well we’re full-go now. So, crash the gaps, invert the opponents offensive line and force them into a ton of screen passes.

4) Fuck the crumbs: Once the run game is going, play-action and the deep ball will pop open. Why throw short if we can cut deep and savagely? Again, this game is to serve notice to the NFL. We have the Rams coming up. Our offensive players need to know that they still have “It”. Treat the giants like a speed-bump, and make the NFL pissed at the Saints for waking us up. THROW. IT. DEEP.

If we do all these things, we’re just about guaranteed to win. Now that we’ve covered what should happen, let’s get into what likely will happen:

Pride. We may be chasing the division now, but right now pride is what we need to be playing for. The desire to punch another group of men in the mouth is what we need to show out there. The reality is, some people in this organization have it and some don’t.

QB Carson Wentz has it. HC Doug Pederson has it. SS Malcolm Jenkins has it. DT Fletcher Cox has it. RB Corey Clement has it. RT Lane Johnson, and LT Jason Peters have it. DB Tre Sullivan has it. G Stefen Wisniewski has it. DE Brandon Graham has it. DB Avonte Maddox has it.

G Isaac Seumalo doesn’t. CB Sidney Jones doesn’t. DC Jim Schwartz doesn’t. RB Wendell Smallwood doesn’t. WR Nelson Agholor doesn’t.

A lot of other players are either sort of in that middle, or like rookies RB Josh Adams, DE Josh Sweat, and TE Dallas Goedert, we haven’t seen them enough to know yet.

This game is going to come down to how bad the Eagles want to win it. On paper (even with injuries), we’re still the better team. We have the talent, and the depth to do this. It’s just going to come down to how much we want it.

All foreplay aside, despite the giants recent renaissance, they should still lose on Sunday. They can’t stop our run game, they can’t stop our passing game, they still can’t protect their QB, and most importantly, we aren’t San Francisco or Tampa Bay. Oh yeah. Those are the two wins that the NFL has been blowing them over. This one should be cake.

PREDICTION: EAGLES 28 – giants 17